


Final Form

by Tasceri



Series: Extended Universe [10]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Past Character Death, Ventus is Roxas, mentions of Vanitas/Riku, sedatives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 22:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11907087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tasceri/pseuds/Tasceri
Summary: Ventus comforts his less-than-human other half. (Compliant with Nebulabetta's and my post-DDD extended universe)





	Final Form

Ventus had seen Riku and Vanitas' room a few times before, and it usually had a warm, cosy atmosphere, assisted by the many blankets, stuffed toys and strings of fairy lights hung up over the furniture. The only window was to the observation room - it had once been a padded cell, after all - but the clutter of its two inhabitants had prevented it from being claustrophobic.  
  
But when he slipped in now, closing the door carefully behind him, not even the bright ceiling lights could tame the lurching shadows in every corner, pulling in the walls and turning the stuffed animals into almost-alive nightmares which grimmaced in Ven's peripheral vision. Even drugged, Vanitas was conscious enough that his emotions bled out of him into monstrous forms. The floor was littered with as many Floods as dirty socks, dripping in and out of the darkness, bringing a chill to the back of Ventus' neck.  
  
He had finally come to accept that Vanitas had been as much of a victim of Xehanort as the rest of them, but that didn't make the memories associated with his little monsters any less painful.  
  
Vanitas twisted his head to look at him as he sat down, his golden eyes glossy. His muscles clenched, tensing as if to move before relaxing again, the weight of the sedatives too great to resist. Black Unversed crawled over Ven's feet, their forms shifting and melting like bubbling tar. He tried to stay still, to avoid provoking them or their progenitor. He knew with Vanitas so unstable it was a risk coming here, if his other half would even remember this when Even's drugs wore off, but...  
  
He glanced up at the observation window. Lumaira was probably watching them both with an impassive eye.  
  
"Hey, uh. Vanitas." Saying that name out loud didn't come easily. "I... I heard about what happened."  
  
Vanitas scoffed, sounding almost like his old self. "Yeah. Master Xehanort was right all along." His voice was slurred, heavy. Ventus wondered how long they'd have to keep him sedated. Although Ven had kept his distance, he'd heard that Vanitas was getting better, acting less like a creature of darkness and more like just an ordinary boy. An ordinary boy whose emotions turned into monsters. But a boy. Human.  
  
Ven cleared his throat. "I want to talk to you. It's important."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere," said Vanitas. He twitched again, managed with effort to move his arm a few inches, battling an invisible resistance.  
  
"It's about something I haven't told anyone," Ventus continued.  He looked away. Closed his eyes. Tried to focus on the breathing techniques he'd been practicing, when things felt like too much. "About... about when I was in the Organisation. When I was Roxas."  
  
Even now the name felt strange, both belonging to him and being someone else's entirely. Ventus wondered if Vanitas felt the same way about the name they had once shared. He wondered a lot of things about the fragment of his heart irreversibly separated from him. More half lives to reconcile.  
  
"I had this friend named Xion. She was... they called her a replica of Sora, but she was more like a doll infused with some of Sora's memories. I don't know." He had thought to ask Even about it, about what Xion really was, but remembering her - what she became - strangled him with tendrils of impotent grief. So many memories, so many too painful to dwell on. What good would it do to know how Vexen created her, when that knowledge would never bring her back? Ven pinched his nose to focus himself. "But she was her own person. We were friends. I... I loved her." That was the part the others knew.  
  
"Good for you," snarled Vanitas.  
  
"I don't understand why," Ven pressed on, "But in the end we couldn't coexist. Sora's memories... Sora's power... we both needed it to survive. We couldn't share it. Xion... she was taking Sora's memories, more than she was supposed to, and..." Vanitas had turned away, glowering at the wall. "This is important," Ventus snapped, wanting to yell. Tears were already pricking against his eyelashes. He wanted to lash out against the monsters, against Vanitas, against those horrible Unversed pinning him to his memories.  
  
"What does it have to do with me."  
  
"I'm getting to that part."  
  
Vanitas just huffed. Ventus realised that his breathing was shallow, uneven. For a brief moment he wished they were the same person again, that none of this had ever happened, not Roxas or Vanitas or even Aqua and Terra, just so he could be _whole_.  
  
"As Xion took more of Sora's memories, she began to change. Apparently different people saw her differently anyway. Because she wasn't a true replica. I don't know. Anyway..." Ventus realised he was speaking slowly. The words felt like bile. He wiped his eyes. "In the end, she... we fought, and... she became a monster. Only one of us was allowed to survive and I..." And he had chosen his own life over Xion's. He, Roxas, a Nobody with the fragment of a pure heart, had been too weak to protect the person who mattered the most. He, Ventus, had been too weak.  
  
Why did everyone he loved have to suffer?  
  
"Anyway, what happened to you happened to her. She took on another form. A... monster." A cruel word for someone so precious, so dear. Ventus scrunched up his fists until his nails stung his skin. If he could be like Vanitas maybe he could begin to understand the feelings inside him. Grief, regret, longing, a gaping void he couldn't begin to put into words. By the time he had collected himself he thought that Vanitas had dozed off, but when he coughed those cold, dazed eyes focused on him again. Challenging.  
  
"I wanted to tell you that," Ventus offered.  
  
Vanitas' lip curled. "She was a monster, I'm a monster. Thanks." The last word practically a snarl. Red eyes, glinting with malice, peered from threatening shapes by the walls.  
  
"No, that's not... That's not what I was trying to say." Ven closed his eyes again, allowing himself to remember Xion. The real Xion: delicate and sturdy at once, cheerful and melancholy, curious, suspicious, trusting. The only person who could have understood what he was going through now.  
  
And he had killed her.  
  
"The point was it didn't matter what Xion was. A replica, or a puppet, or whatever. She was my friend and I loved her." Tears were dripping off Ven's chin; his nose was running. He probably looked a state. He wondered what Xion would think of him now. Had Xion ever cried? Could she? "And... it doesn't matter what you are either. People love you. Your heart is connected to theirs now. That's what matters."  
  
Vanitas didn't say anything, but Ven imagined that the Unversed receded a little, allowing a soft fairy-light glow to permeate the room. He stood up, wiping his face on his sleeve. He should have brought tissues.  
  
"Anyway, that's all. I thought... I thought maybe it would help."  
  
It might have been the light, or maybe the sedatives, but Vanitas' eyes almost looked damp. And just as Ven was levering the heavy door open, a small voice, a child's voice: "Ventus?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
".... Thanks."  
  
Ventus closed the door as quietly as he could and slipped down the corridor, breathing a sigh of relief. He hoped Xion would have been proud of him.


End file.
